My baby Chris Brown.

Turn up the music is the first single off Chris Brown's FORTUNE (To be released on March 16th) album. I was so glad when he performed it at the grammy's and now, less than a week later, the official music video has been released. I really love the video, it's very creative and the choreography? :o Mind-blowing. I'm so proud of how far he's come since the incident in 2009. He has a grammy now yaaaaay! If you haven't seen the video yet, check it out on his vevo channel.

Painting

I just remembered I had written a poem last month for Femme Fatale on the theme 'love'. Perfect for the season! :D

PAINTING is, well, a very self explanatory poem I would say. It wasn't inspired by anything in particular, I simply drew from several memories, old and new. One thing I did with this one though was incorporate things I enjoy or like into the poem: I love Art (drawing and painting), Geography is my favorite subject although that's beginning to change, London is my #2 favorite city (#1 is Lagos!!), I simply adore Frank Ocean, his voice and his lyrics, and finally, I mentioned Zombie Boy in the poem who I find mesmerizing and brilliant for some reason. Enjoy.

We are painting this picture

Together.
Two talented artists,
We are painting it breathlessly
And thoughtlessly
Although we have only just learned how to hold the paintbrush
Straight
Like arrows stretched out from cupid's bow,
Pointed directly at us
Urging us to love one another
Recklessly
Like our hearts collided the first time our eyes met
And have since
Been too busy getting drunk on love to notice the traffic lights
Because it feels too right to be anything but green
Which is why sometimes I forget myself
In you
Mentally;
It’s almost like thoughts of you go beyond my mind and flow through my entire body
like they replaced my blood so that I can finally feel
Alive
And I do
When we are together
Singing along to Frank Ocean,
My voice crawling its way from your ear into your soul because I want you to understand mine
Sees beyond the present too
“Do you not think so far ahead?”
Because I had always said to love, “never”
But you,
You make it all right
For my heart to beat through my palms as they lay on yours,
Perspiring
And my fingers intertwine with yours
Like they were shy teenagers experiencing the depths of a love affair.
And you,
You make it all right
For my mind to dance to Spanish music while travelling through Turkey and Bombay
Splitting my focus from my 1000-word Geography essay
That somehow
Can’t find its way onto the blank piece of paper from London
Where we shared our first kiss
And purged on love poems
Because our tongues,
they danced so beautifully together
It was difficult not to write
On the crisp white sheets how we felt
And how our brains are so exhausted they send out mixed signals
So that the Oxford Dictionary would have to include more words to enable us articulate how we feel
Because love is mind-blowing
And love IS blind
That’s why the butterflies in my stomach stay confused because they are too young to know their way around
Just as we are too young to say we have found
Love,
But I swear it feels like God just showed me the last piece to my puzzled life
And then like baby steps,
Walked this through to its rightful place just to remind me that there was something I had been missing all along
And He doesn’t make mistakes.
So can you love me?
Like I was a Sunday morning sermon the pastor told you to hold on to
But unlike that, can I remain that way?
Tattooed on your skull like you were dressed as Zombie boy for Halloween.
Cause I do love you
And I’m ignoring all the safety precautions on this unfamiliar highway because I’m tired of feeling low
And intoxicated
By the glue I have used countless times to place the thousand pieces together again as one heart,
Into thinking I had no reason to feel beautiful
Or confident
Or loved.
So let’s just keep painting,
Keeping in mind that we never have to look back because standing before us is something amazing,
And breathtakingly wonderful;
We can call it “Happiness”.

Oh and by the way,

Hello again, I just wanted to say Happy Valentine's Day everyone. I hope everyone has a nice day celebrating those you love and who are special and dear to your heart. Yes, this includes your grandparents, parents, best friends, friends, siblings, and for those of you in relationships, your spouses. Have fun today guys. I look forward to the Glee "Love" episode because my baby Samuel Larsen is finally  making his debut *claps*. He's my valentine whether he knows it or not :)

Ellen and One Million Mothers

I never blog about these kinds of things but I had a strong urge to pen down my thoughts on this matter a few days ago after watching Ellen speak out about it. First of all, Ellen is my girl. I love her so much and I can't get enough of her show. She's down to earth and simply too real for anyone not to love. I also find myself laughing out loud when I watch her because she's just too funny.

When I heard she was pairing up with JCPenny, I thought to myself 'good for her'. I don't shop at JCPenny for obvious reasons (I live in Vienna) but if Ellen was happy about it then I was happy for her. I didn't know about the One Million Mothers thing until Ellen spoke out about it and here is what I think: these mothers are simply enemies of progress. I mean, for real? How does her sexual orientation have anything to do with her being the spokesperson for JCPenny? Is the word 'gay' plastered on her forehead? It makes no sense discriminating her for who she is because at the end of the day she's first and foremost a human being and therefore deserves to be treated as such.

Anyway, I am glad JCPenny stood by her because it would have sucked for her to lose her job because of her sexual orientation. It simply makes no sense. Whether or not they agree with her actions they have no right to judge her for them. I love the fact that Ellen addressed the issue and said "My haters are my motivators" because there will always be people who don't want to see you succeed but you must always stay strong and never let them bring you down. Whew. It feels good to finally let that out. Okay, bye.

Loveessss it.

It has been a while since I put up videos I like but now I have finally seen another amazing video that I couldn't not share. Its the video for Bez's song "Stupid Song" featuring Praise off his album "Super Sun". Now these two gentlemen have the most amazing vocals I've heard in a while; they sound kind of like John Legend. The song makes me remember stupid songs I had to learn in school, or songs we used to tease each other as kids. I miss Nigeria so much :(

PS. Bez's "Super Sun" album is amazing!! I mean, he is signed under Cobhams Asuquo's record label!! My favorite song off it is Zuciya Daya.
PPS. Another recent video that was really good was the video to Brymo's Ara. That video was brilliant.

Glee-hee (According Chris Colfer lol)

The Glee Michael Jackson episode was amazing!! I loved the episode even though my mum kept making funny remarks the entire time. My favorite number was "Human Nature" by Mercedes + Sam. Fox needs to release the official video to that asap. All the performances blew my mind away to be honest. Glee hit the nail on the head with that episode, my favorite one for sure.

The beauty that is Jac ♥

Zombie Boy & Jac

Chanel Ad.

She's so belle. I can't believe she's only 18.

Michael

I can't explain how I feel anymore than these three tweets:

I just watched the promo video for the episode and 'Wanna Be Startin' Something' sounds toooo good. This year is the Michael Jackson year for sure.

EVOKED

EVOKED is simply about dreams and the art of dreaming. A dream is anything you desire or wish to have. The poem describes the soft transition into the dream world where all the real human aspirations (dreams) can exist. Things such as doubt and bad experiences often reduce hope in dreams coming true but when asleep, anything is possible.

If I let my soul wander
with the tides
as I chill
by the ocean
then I could kick my stress into its waters
and make the sand age
instantaneously,
as I give it wrinkles
with my feet

then the palm trees will guard
my thoughts,
beneath the shadows of their
uncertainty of the sun
while I let my mind soar
beyond her call for
the moon's light,
right after she's tucked me in
in time
for a bedtime story
amongst twinkling stars

and then the waves will deposit
the beauty they had stuffed their faces with
at dinner time;
seashells
to be traded irrevocably for
memories
in different shapes of
gray and blue,
so that sand dollars are worth something brighter
and laughter becomes a little more
Meaningful.

Afterwards,
my soul will be
filled with
make-believe clouds of truth,
the kind that make it possible
to fly right through
reappearing rainbows
and
seahorses
that have been bred for war,
drawing chariots of
Faith.

And if I let my heart dream,
Ignoring the audience of sea creatures
attempting to thwart the
construction of my sandcastle,
my ears will be awake to the sound of seagulls,
speaking in the language of humans
and I will finally understand that I don't have to wait upon a shooting star
because under these circumstances
I can watch my wishes come
Alive.

- Mercedes Onyemenam

Femme Fatale: EVOKED

Poetry

I find that when people read my poems, or any other poem on Femme Fatale they suspect I wrote, they ask what they are specifically about or what inspired them. So, I have decided that I'd generally explain each piece I write for Femme Fatale on this blog. Hopefully, it will allow a better understanding of why each poem is personal to me.

PIANO AND DRUMS

When at break of day at a riverside 

I hear jungle drums telegraphing 

the mystic rhythm, urgent, raw 

like bleeding flesh, speaking of 

primal youth and the beginning,
I see the panther ready to pounce,
the leopard snarling about to leap
and the hunters crouch with spears poised;

And my blood ripples, turns torrent, 

topples the years and at once I’m
in my mother’s lap a suckling;
at once I’m walking simple
paths with no innovations,
rugged, fashioned with the naked
warmth of hurrying feet and groping hearts 

in green leaves and wild flowers pulsing.

Then I hear a wailing piano
solo speaking of complex ways
in tear-furrowed concerto;
of far-away lands
and new horizons with
coaxing diminuendo, counterpoint, 

crescendo. But lost in the labyrinth
of its complexities, it ends in the middle 

of a phrase at a daggerpoint. 

And I lost in the morning mist
of an age at a riverside keep 

wandering in the mystic rhythm 

of jungle drums and the concerto.

- Gabriel Okara

I am in love with how vivid the imagery is in this poem!!

Romans 4:5

But to the one who does not work, but believes in Him who
justifies the ungodly, his faith is credited as righteousness.
- New American Standard Bible

Femme Fatale: Death Letter

The pieces to this puzzling memory have long been worn out by
my over-telling of this sad tale
but I can remember faintly
the circumstances under which this story played:

The lights were dim
so that you could make out shapes in motion
but you could not make out faces
because your blood was intoxicated
but you weren't even bleeding though you'd lost count of the shots.

And the soft music played in the background
so that shadows danced around in circles
like they were performing a ritual and
although you could smell the mix of potions
you remained unaware that you were the lamb to be sacrificed.

They said that Christmas was in fortnight,
minus three days that day.

Notice how this conversational monologue is
being recited in second person
because I did not arrive there that day knowing that I would be the last person she would open her heart to
or that I would ever wish to die so that I will not longer regret the words I spoke that night.

You see
she loved me
like I was happiness itself.
It was evident from the way her face burst
into colorful hues of red
like an artist was painting a rose
and forgot his paintbrush on her cheeks.

She loved me
like her soul was lost somewhere
in my eyes
because when she looked at me,
it was like without me
she would never find herself beyond the depths of her imagination where nothing is real.

and when they told me of their failed attempt
at excavating the cocktail of painkillers
from her stomach,
I knew that these archaeologists
must have discovered a thousand butterflies
that had already died of old-age.

Its sad
because I could have told her that
her "I love you's" hadn't fallen upon deaf ears.

That her kind words were like earthquakes to my beating heart
and that the mere thought of her
sent signals from my brain
to parts of my body I'd lost control of.

Instead, when we finally got to talking that night
I told her how she hadn't fought enough for us.
I pointed my fingers at her
and I shot her with painful words.
She bled this time.

I could have told her that she smelt like heaven
that she made my mind push clouds
and my hands mimic the shape of doves
because I wanted God to get my message.

But it was already too late the minute I let her walk away from me
because I did not leave that day knowing
that it would be the last night she'd ever let her heart beat.

- Merceds Onyemenam

Femme Fatale: Death Letter

Kid Luu

There's this crazy and hilarious human on my twitter timeline called Laolu (Kid Luu). He's a comedian so obviously he does really funny videos but he has never made me laugh as much as he did with this video:

LMAAAAOOO! God bless his soul.

The ZOO

Last summer, my younger cousins came to visit in Vienna and so as I had to make sure they had fun. What do kids love more than animals?  I didn't wanna bore anyone with photos of the zoo initially but when I was going through my camera I thought these were really cool animal shots. Shoot me if I'm wrong.

Photo taken and edited by me.

Photo taken and edited by me using a Nikon D500

Photo taken by me with a Nikon D500 and edited using Picnik

Photo taken and edited by me using a Nikon D5000

SWAG walk with my brother.

I was bored and I had a camera so I took a walk with my brother and took these photos:

My brother.

My favorite necklace now. Its my Jesus cross so I wear it all the time.

POW.
I've always wanted to do one of these, don't hate.

Bye.

On New Years Eve ..

I went to church on the 31st cause that's what I do. The crossover service was amazing and when we finally did the countdown everyone went crazy. They kept singing Nigerian choruses so my sister and I were dancing like madmen cause we were very excited.

However, I still miss crossover in Nigeria. It was very different and it was so much fun. The best part of it is that my extended family was usually in church too. I miss them :(

After the service, my sister and I went to the city but it was so rowdy and disgusting because everyone was wasted so we went back home at 2. All in all, it was okay.

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO EVERYONE!!